


Show Me My Silver Lining

by theydiedofterminalstupidity



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Jack's sad, M/M, Might be updated idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:33:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25427716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theydiedofterminalstupidity/pseuds/theydiedofterminalstupidity
Summary: He spirals after the loss of his daughter.Rhys doesn't know how to fix this.
Relationships: Handsome Jack & Rhys (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	1. the day of

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this is alright!! It's my first work (that I'm posting online, at least).

His back slammed against the door, and he fell to the ground as a loud sob tore it’s way from his throat. The tears were coming down his face in steady streams and his nose burned with irritation as it wept alongside his eyes. His knees were tugged up to his chest while he started to rock back and forth.

Jack was violently shaking.

He was losing his mind.

His trembling hands threaded themselves into his hair and pulled harshly, low whimpers leaving his lips as his eyes screwed shut. The mask was getting damp, sealing the moisture against his face and making it feel like he was suffocating, it made his breathing more unsteady as panic set in. Dropping his hands lower, he undid the clasps on his temples and wrenched the mask away from the clip on his chin. It came off with a snap, and he stared at it in his hands, hollow eyes staring right back. Venom laced itself into his words as he wailed, “She was just a little girl, goddamnit!” He hurled the mask across the room, wheezing as his throat was rubbed raw from all the crying.

Every fibre of his being was telling him to move, and when he did, he was met with screams of protest from his muscles. He drowned them out with whines from his own mouth, and crawled towards his desk, knees scraping the ground with every movement. He couldn’t care, though. The pain in his chest was worse, it was constricting, he could have sworn he was drowning. The last time he felt like this was when his wife was killed, and even that was hardly comparable to the state he was in now. It took all of his strength to drag himself up the stairs, and slump into his plush desk chair. The dopamine injectors were doing nothing, not even making a dent in his mood. Jack rested an elbow on his desk, reaching for the framed picture of his daughter. He eyed it for a few minutes, gazing at those baby blue eyes and allowing himself to find some calmness within them. That was short-lived, though, and he found himself tossing the frame like some sort of discus. It smacked into the wall, and the sound of glass shattering filled the office before the frame settled against the ground. Something to deal with later. For now, a sharp ping from his computer gained his attention.

It was an incoming call, the contact image displaying a goofy selfie from his boyfriend. As much as he wanted to accept it… Rhys couldn’t see him like this. He couldn’t know. Not yet.

He swiped the holo-screen away and dismissed the call, knowing that Rhys would whine about it after the fact. Jack knew he looked a mess, hair strewn in each direction while a couple strands were plastered to his forehead with sweat. Snot covered his upper lip and his eyes were still glassy, rimmed with tears. His ridiculous attire was soaked with tears, and rumpled until it was hardly believable that they were ever ironed.

Another chime sounded from his computer.

This time, it was a text.

He couldn’t keep blowing him off, and hey, maybe chatting with the younger would cheer him up. He just had to figure out how to put on a different kind of mask. A façade. He had to be okay. For Rhys.

He opened it, his heart immediately sinking lower.

『 Text from : Princess ♡』  
> im heading up to your office so we can have lunch :)  
> take a break and answer my calls sometimes smh

No, no, no… Rhys couldn’t do that. Another wave of panic washed over him and he scrambled to find his mask, adrenaline shooting through him and pushing him to get up and find his real façade. It got clasped on as soon as Rhys knocked at the door.

“Come on in, pumpkin.” It took everything in his power to stop his voice from cracking or wavering, but that got significantly easier once he saw Rhys’ face. The boy had a way of making things better for the CEO, no matter what was happening. He was wearing his normal vest and striped dress shirt, with that horrendous skinny tie. Just the sight of the younger male brought a slight smile to Jack’s face. The fog in his mind thinned as he looked into Rhys’ eyes, getting lost in them rather quickly before he realized that Rhys was speaking. To him. And he had no idea.

“... Jack? What’s wrong? Why are your eyes so red?”

He was keeping the tears at bay for the moment, and his boyfriend took a couple long strides to reach him, arms going around his shoulders immediately.

“I’ll, uh… tell you later. Promise.” The usual cockiness and amusement in his voice was gone, replaced with hoarseness, completely void of emotion. Rhys pulled away and grasped Jack’s shaking hands in his own, pressing a kiss to the back of each.

“I’m here for you… You know that, right? No matter what…”

He was met with a slow nod, and Jack’s gaze fell to the ground. Rhys urged his boss to sit back down at his desk, where he found a spot on top of Jack’s thighs, like normal. He draped his own long legs across one arm rest, his back against the other as he leaned into his boyfriend’s chest. The older brushed his hand over the expanse of Rhys’ back, and he buried his face into the crook of his neck, seeking comfort there. Memories came flooding back to him, sitting with Angel in his lap, doing mundane things like brushing her hair or watching a show together. He forced the tears down again, and swallowed thickly, pressing dry lips to Rhys’ skin in a futile attempt to distract himself.

It all got to be too much, and the dam broke again. He gripped at Rhys’ shirt in an instant, soft sobs wracking his body once more. “She didn’t deserve to die- Not my baby girl…”

It honestly took the younger a second to process before he really put together what was happening, and he turned to face Jack. The latter was gasping for air, trying to fill his lungs to their regular capacity, and failing miserably.

“Waitwaitwait- Jack, I need you to breathe… What are you talking about..?” A slight frown pulled at his features and he cupped the older’s cheeks. He tried to meet those green and blue eyes, but they were sealed shut, tears raining down his face. Each inhale felt like fire filling Jack’s chest and he wound up coughing, spluttering against Rhys’ shirt. “Take your time, baby… I need you to slow down, and try to relax.” He did what he could, pressing soft kisses into his greying locks.

“The f-friggin’ siren!” Behind the tears swimming in his eyes, there was the unmistakable look of rage playing around.

Had Rhys not trusted Jack so much, he would have feared for his life.

“S-She’s taken everything from me-” The poison was back in his system, and he tried to move Rhys out of his lap. “Get off me… I’ve got a siren to hunt.”

He blinked slowly, and just shifted closer to him. “No..? You’re not going anywhere… What’s happening..? I can’t help unless you talk to me-” His words were cut off by Jack trying to lift him. This wouldn’t have been a challenge any other day, but the aching in his muscles was back with a vengeance and it made it near impossible for him to shift the skinny man off of him. For the first time, he felt absolutely helpless, his entire body shuddering with pain.

Rhys forced him to look down, borderline feral eyes meeting Rhys’ concerned ones. Something must have clicked for Jack, because he heaved a sigh and slouched again, his arms slowly wrapping around his boyfriend’s waist. With the younger pressed against him, he started to calm down, his shaking reducing to nothing.

They stayed like this until the office was silent, save for the trickling from the water features that spanned across the floor. Rhys knew his lunch break was up, but Henderson’s petty anger was the least of his problems right now. He’d get to the bottom of what happened later, but for now, he stayed in Jack’s lap, gently rocking them, and running a hand through his hair slowly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys does what he can, and Jack shows his thanks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is very short, but it's really just to tie everything together! I hadn't planned on adding to this, in all honesty, but I wasn't expecting the reaction I got to it! :D
> 
> As always, bug me on Twitter @RxspectPronouns !

The coming days only got worse. Rhys couldn’t get him to eat, to come to bed-  _ nothing _ . As soon as Jack had told him what happened, the younger packed a few bags, and moved into the penthouse. Sort of. He still had to go back to his place occasionally, but it was more important for him to stay by his boyfriend’s side whenever possible.

Rhys pressured him to open applications for a PA position, so that his work load wasn’t near as bad as before.

As soon as Jack got Rhys’ application, he accepted it, of course.

The two of them were practically inseparable. Not due to either’s clinginess, or without Jack’s constant ‘I’m fine, baby’s, or ‘I can do it myself’s, but because they needed each other. The older would never admit it, but he would have completely fallen apart without Rhys. He’d be lost, a husk of who he used to be. Rhys helped to restore some semblance of a normal life, bringing Jack meals, helping him to shower, setting out clothes for him…

It was a new sort of job for him, but it wasn’t the same type of chore. He enjoyed doing it, to some degree. While it wasn’t ideal, he knew he was able to help Jack, and the fact that he was being allowed to do that was astonishing in itself. Anyone else who may have attempted to console the grieving father would have been shoved out an airlock, if they were lucky.

  
  
  


Jack had plans before this all happened. Those were long forgotten, now, and the box was tucked into one of the drawers of his desk. The contents had only been seen by the megalomaniac himself; an ornate ring, and a small chip containing an update for Rhys’ cybernetics. He planned on asking him to move in, bringing him to meet Angel, maybe proposing after a bit… That was before she was taken from him.

Now, Rhys had gotten the update anyways, which gave him access to the Hyperion databases, and the penthouse they shared. He considered ditching the ring, locking those plans away within his mind for another day, month, or maybe year, but he needed Rhys more than ever now.

He would never admit this.

Instead, his appreciation for the help that his new PA brought came in small tokens of affection when he felt up to it. A rose on his desk, fresh coffee in the mornings, or sometimes they’d sit down and watch a show together. These little things were pretty much all Jack did. He was hardly ever in the office anymore, and only got out of bed when Rhys forced him to.

He knew he’d made mistakes. He knew he could have been better to her. He knew that what he was doing was wrong. However, hindsight is never very helpful.

Thoughts of her consumed his waking hours, swarmed his mind and wrapped around his cerebral cord, refusing to give way to any sort of dopamine or clarity.

Pictures of her around the penthouse were removed by Rhys as soon as he’d gotten Jack home the day that it happened. They were hidden in the back of the closet, despite Jack’s wishes to destroy them, which he was bound to regret if he’d gone through with it.

His latest breakdown happened when the couple was trying to take a shower, and Jack nearly collapsed against his boyfriend, who startled and wound up slipping, opting to sit at the bottom of the shower. He let Jack take a seat in his lap, and they just sat like that, holding each other while Jack’s tears mingled with soapy water on their bodies, and the shower slowly turned cool. The CEO had little fits and bouts of rage here and there, which could only be sated by some coos from his PA, and maybe a kiss on the forehead.

It was like their world had gone still, stagnant, and at the same time, things were hurtling by them with no notice. Opportunities they would have had were far past now, and any of Rhys’ hopes for something more serious crashed and burned.

He wasn’t upset that things had come to this, no, but maybe he regretted not taking that next step with Jack sooner. But he didn’t have time to think about it, because he was practically running Hyperion for Jack at this point, since he was in no condition to be making major business decisions.

The day after that instance in the shower, the box was on Jack’s desk- which Rhys had been inhabiting as of late. There was a small, handwritten note beside it, that just said ‘I hope you like it. -J’

Rhys slipped it on as soon as he saw it, and neither of them talked about it afterwards. Any sort of engagement was unspoken, but understood very clearly by both sides, and it made some of the weight lift off of Jack’s shoulders.

Things were, by no means, back to normal. But he had Rhys. And that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments or message me on Twitter @Rxspectpronouns ! I'm looking for feedback. :)


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